I was a little shocked to see on SDN some posts from premeds who say that they would pick Caribbean MD over US DO.
They seem to be hung up over the initials. I “get” that some are imagining that there would be less confusion from patients seeing MD rather than DO after their names, but they’re skipping an important part…getting a US residency.
Sure, you will be fine if you are top student in the school and score a 265 in step 1.
Lol.
Wow… I’d pick a US DO school over the Caribbean schools anytime. DO schools graduate doctors who are entitled to work in the US. Caribbean schools… just don’t. 
With recent residency-program changes that place U.S. DOs on an equal footing with U.S. MDs, it is ever harder to be placed into a residency program from the Caribbean. But, then again, maybe you are one of those who regularly play the Lotto.
I agree with all of the above.
Yes, there are some top kids at Caribbean schools who then manage to have top Step and get US residencies, but good heavens… all of that risk just to have MD instead of DO after one’s name?
Frankly, I wish DO schools would be MD schools to get rid of this crazy confusion.
@MinnesotaDadof3 while there will be a combined match, I’m not sure that “equal footing” will be for awhile.
US DO and not even close. Pre-meds on SDN are not a group I would put any stock in when it comes to good knowledge/advice/sense
Totally agree.
I just brought this up in case some lurkers might be thinking the same thing.
To other lurkers, there’s maybe 5 people on SDN that I would trust to dole out pre-med advice (LizzyM and Goro are the 2 that come to mind immediately, I’d recognize the others if I saw their names) and I can guarantee that none of them would advocate caribbean over DO.
The majority of the pre-med section on SDN is people displacing their negative emotions surrounding the whole process onto other posters.
Besides LIzzyM and Goro (who are adcomms at their respective institutions), I’d add gyngyn (another adcomm) and gonnif (a retired adcomm who now offers admission counseling to non-trads) to the trustworthy list.
Med Ed (former adcomm) and DoktorMom (practicing physician) also offer pretty good advice.
Oh I agree that those folks would NEVER advocate going abroad.
I was just struck by the short-sightedness of being focused on letters (MD vs DO) instead of how difficult it will be for most of them to get a US residency…which I think is usually the goal when a domestic student goes abroad
DO, easily.
Would love to see the link on SDN where someone recommended Car. MD vs US DO? I’ve seen it when there literally is no chance for US admission and you still are willing to do anything to become a MD, but that is it.
Here you go
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/threads/caribbean-schools-with-better-match-lists-then-dos.1217144/
The key issues are:
I don’t want to post the link because it includes my school in it but just googled the name of the Caribbean grad prelim on my surgery team and he is a featured alum on his med school’s website where they brag about how he’s at my school for surgery. Of course at no point do they mention that he was only accepted for an intern year and had to apply again this year to get into a surgery program for PGY2. Very good chance he doesn’t even stay at my school and a not 0 chance he doesn’t have a job anywhere next year. He was apparently one of the top students in his class.
Apparently now a few colleges are offering “guaranteed BA/MD” programs—that send students to Caribbean medical schools
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences —> SGU
https://www.mcphs.edu/academics/school-of-arts-and-sciences/premedical-and-health-studies/premed-pathway-medicine-bs-md-st-george
Monmouth University ---->SGU
https://www.monmouth.edu/school-of-science/st-georges-program.aspx
Franklin Pierce University —> SGU
http://www.franklinpierce.edu/academics/ugrad/programs_of_study/div_natsci/md_dvm_pathway/index.htm
AUA offers “guaranteed” admission to grads of the following colleges if they have 3.25 GPA or better (no MCAT required)
Assumption College
Bloomfield College (NJ)
Caldwell College
Cal State-Dominguez Hills
Cal State-Fullerton
College of St. Elizabeth
Culver-Stockton College
Dominican College
Emmanuel College (MA)
Georgia Southern (offer accelerated 3+4 program)
Greenville College
King College
Loyola Marymount (CA)
Mercy College (NY)
Monmouth College
New Jersey Institute of Technology (offers an accelerated 3+4 program)
Northwest Suburban College
Slippery Rock Univesity
SUNY-Oswego
SUNY-Plattsburg (offer accelerated 3+4 program)
University of Bridgeport
University of West Florida
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Valencia College (admission ofter AA degree, student will take 30 credits at AUA before starting med school)
https://www.auamed.org/about/articulation-agreements/
Ross University Medical School offers guaranteed admission to students at these colleges w/ 3.2 GPA (no MCAT required) . Student eligible for admission after completing junior year and do not need to finish undergrad degree.
Bay Path University
Benedictine University
Cal State-- San Marcos
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Gannon University
Medaille College
Monmouth University
Ramapo College
SUNY Cobleskill
http://medical.rossu.edu/medical-school/admissions/partnerships.cfm
I bet the Caribbean schools are paying a pretty penny for these agreements. And I have to admit, it’s a brilliant move by them.
I hope these kids and families who sign up for these guaranteed admissions realize what they’re getting when they decide to apply and enroll.
Wow, I can’t even recognize most of the UG WOWM posted in #14, but those CSUs and the schools in NJ, ie FDU, Ramapo and such they are accepting 70-80% of the applicants, not competitive at all. Just imagine those graduates going to AUA or Ross with 3.25 GPA without even MCAT? The Caribbeans med schools are really money hungry monsters.
Also, imagine those “medical schools” now advertising in all the medias day in and day out just to get enough ducks?
^^^^
All scary …
And, frankly, there’s a laziness that happens when someone learns of an easy path…3.25…no MCAT…and heck, how strict are they with having all the prereqs???
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just googled the name of the Caribbean grad prelim on my surgery team and he is a featured alum on his med school’s website where they brag about how he’s at my school for surgery. Of course at no point do they mention that he was only accepted for an intern year and had to apply again this year to get into a surgery program for PGY2. Very good chance he doesn’t even stay at my school and a not 0 chance he doesn’t have a job anywhere next year. He was apparently one of the top students in his class.
[/QUOTE]
@iwannabe_Brown
Help me understand.
It sounds like he first only matched for his prelim year. Then what? He didn’t have a successful SOAP last year, so this year he had to go thru Match again for his PGY2?
If I’m understanding, and he matched for PGY2, why wouldn’t that be for a PGY2, 3, 4, and however long that residency is? Do doctors get booted out of residencies? I guess it’s possible if someone is flaky, but is it really likely it could happen to this person?
As an aside, it annoys me when the Caribb med students claim that they got their #1 match. Since they often don’t have interviews at the better programs, announcing that they got their #1 just misleads unsuspecting undergrads. I know a student who naively enrolled at AUC and she was “sold” on the school because some 4th years were bragging about their #1 Matches…and God only knows what low level programs those were.
Correct. He graduated in 2016 and only matched into a prelim surgery year, the kind of program people do before optho or some other surgical subspecialty (which is what he wanted). He had to apply again this year for PGY2 spots in order to have a job in July 2017.
He had not matched for PGY2+. But to answer your other questions, doctors could get booted out of residencies. This particular person has not been “booted” from anything. He was simply not accepted as an MS4 into anything other than a dead end 1 year position.
Yep. That being said, undergrad schools do this too where they make students state whether they are matriculating at the #1 choice of the schools they got into.